A Look Back At Andy Reid’s Tenure In Philadelphia

The news was long expected and finally came on Monday morning in the form of a statement from the team owner, Jeffrey Lurie. “It is time for the Eagles to move in a new direction,” said Lurie in the press release.

Reports from Howard Eskin and Reuben Frank surfaced on Sunday evening saying that Lurie and Reid met on Friday and Reid was informed that Monday would be his last day as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach. Reid denied the report in his post game press conference and later sent a text message to Vai Sikahema saying that he’s still here. All that can be forgotten now and Andy Reid’s time with the Philadelphia Eagles has come to an end.

In the past two seasons, Andy Reid has compiled a 12-20 record. Many believed that during multiple games, his players quit on him, the sign that his tenure as their head coach is all but over. No time prior was it more apparent than on Sunday when the Eagles lost to their divisional opponent New York Giants 42-7.

The game opened with a successful onsides kick that was recovered by CB Brandon Hughes but the Eagles fortunes quickly took a turn for the worse. A Michael Vick pass sailed high and was intercepted by Stevie Brown and the Giants never let up. Led by Eli Manning’s four first half touchdowns, the most in his career, the Giants went into half time leading 35-7. The Giants only added one more touchdown in the second half and the Andy Reid era of Eagles football wrote its final chapter as an ugly 42-7 whooping. The 2012 season wrapped up with a 4-12 record, four losses more than Jeffrey Lurie’s 8-8 mark that he would call unacceptable to warrant a contract extension for his coach.

The era began on January 11th, 1999 and rang in with boos at the 1999 NFL Draft three months later when he drafted Donovan McNabb with the second overall pick in the draft. Reid led the Eagles to five NFC Championships (2001-2004 and 2008) but only one Super Bowl appearance in 2004 which resulted in a heartbreaking 24-21 loss to the Patriots.

After the Super Bowl Reid’s success never equaled what he showed in his first six seasons. With the exception of a 2008 run to the NFC Championship Game, Reid had an average six seasons and extremely disappointing two seasons to wrap up his 14-year career. Some may argue that injuries to Donovan McNabb and the inconsistent play of Michael Vick could have contributed but the fact is, the ultimate job never got done.

Andy Reid never had success against winning teams. Against teams that qualified for the playoffs that season, Reid has mustered up a 26-50 record, including just 2-8 in the past two seasons. When taking a deeper look into Reid’s 130-93-1 regular season record, some may not be so impressed. The record against playoff teams is disappointing, that one tie will forever be burned into the minds of those remembering Reid’s tenure with the Eagles, and it will forever be remembered that he never won the big game.

Regardless of what anyone says, Reid’s fourteen years with the franchise were a huge upgrade from the fourteen years with Buddy Ryan, Ray Rhodes, and Rich Kotite. In 14 seasons Ryan,Rhodes, and Kotite combined for two playoff wins. Andy Reid surpassed that mark in just his third season and improved it five-fold in his career with ten playoff wins. Reid has brought the Eagles franchise the best years of football almost anybody alive can remember. The Eagles remain one of the few teams who have never won a Super Bowl.

Reid had players who fought their hearts out for 60 minutes per game early in his career. Names like Donovan McNabb, Jeremiah Trotter, Brian Westbrook, and Brian Dawkins led the team in the glory years. In 2011 and 2012 Reid’s team undoubtedly quit on him at certain points. Despite the incredibly tough offseason Reid had with the death of his son and the team saying they would rally around the coach and win games for him, Reid ended the season alone. Not literally alone, but his team, or the majority of it, quit on him. Reid’s 14-year career ended with Trent Edwards as his quarterback.

Nobody can win on their own and with signs that the team was not playing with the necessary heart, it was ultimately decided that it was Reid’s time to go. A press conference will be held at 1 PM on Monday with Jeffrey Lurie alone at the podium to announce the news. Andy Reid’s tenure as Eagles head coach has come to a close as one of the most impressive coaching careers in the NFL’s history. Total wins: 140. NFC Championship Game appearances: Five. Super Bowl appearances: One. And a 0-1 record. Reid has impressive numbers but his career will forever be tarnished by that 0-1 record in the sports world’s biggest game.

48 Comments for “A Look Back At Andy Reid’s Tenure In Philadelphia”

You can say what you like about Andy Reid, but I thank him for his years of service. I will never forget the excitement of that 2000 season, and the hopes for the future during that time. Unfortunatley the team that he inherited faded out, along with his initial philosophy for building a team. Year by year things changed for the worse, leading up to the debacle of the 2010/11 seasons. I can only hope the next coach can bring that same excitement, a system that isn’t as flawed, and ultimately the Super Bowl we want so much. Best of luck Andy………..

I agree CJ. In all fairness did Andy make mistakes. Were we frustrated with his time management, his play calling, his failure to adapt during games, his inability to recognize that all positions on a team are important? Yes and he has paid the price. He will get another job but let’s remember he resurrected a franchise and he will be remembered for that. When he retires and comes back he will be treated with respect and fondness

Having lived through Joe Kuharich, Jerry Williams, Ed Khayet, Mike McCormick, Marion Campbell and Rich Kotite I can only say thank you to Andy Reid for making the Eagles relevant again. How quickly we forget. It was time to move on but I can’t badmouth that man.

Could be the stupidest thing ever posted on this site…there is no such thing as ‘barely making the playoffs’ . Also he was only 1 and done once or twice meaning he usually made a run. In 9 playoff seasons the eagles played 19 games, that’s over two playoff games per entry into the post season.
Beloved dck ver,eil played 7 playoff games in 7 years. 1 per year. Buddy Ryan never won a playoff game. Be pissed atandy but don’t say pathetic

it truly amazes me that people cannot look past their PERSONAL animosity and give the man his due. He did not win a SB. We know. Did he make mistakes? YES! he paid the price. He is good football coach. You do not win 140 games in the NFL and have a winning pct of 578 by luck.

OK, I know it’s sad and pathetic… but over the years I’ve had so many frustrating arguments with friends about the greatness of Andy Reid. So I put together a spreadsheet of all his seasons and noted the games won and lost to teams relative to their records. I’d argued for a long time that Reid was phenomenal against patsies – but routinely outcoached by better coaches (at least teams with better records). So I proved myself correct by doing some math.

Over the years, I may have gotten a few entries wrong. But I’m confident that it’s relatively accurate. My favorite numbers are:

* 68% of all Reid’s reg. season losses are to teams with 9 or more wins.
* 26% of all Reid’s reg. season wins are over teams with 9 or more wins.
* 35% win percentage in reg. season against teams with 9 or more wins.

No matter how you slice it, Andy Reid is statistically doomed to never win a Super Bowl. Over a 14-year span as a head coach and manager of the football operations, it’s not a fluke – it’s what you are. And when your lifetime record against winning teams is roughly 1 in 3, you can’t expect to ever be able to win 3 straight against them without a miracle or two.

You’re so blind stupid in love with Reid that you completely miss the point.

This current season, Patriots beat 3 winning teams and lost to 3 winning teams. That’s 50%. They lost 1 game to a losing team this year.

The three stats I put together conclusively reflect Reid’s inability to win the big games. Yes, bad teams lose to the good teams. But good teams are supposed to be able to beat other good teams more than one out of three tries.

So your focus on the losses is no valid argument at all. In fact, it’s weak. There have been teams in the past that have done flukishly well against good teams and then play down to bad teams. I included numbers to show that Reid didn’t have that sort of fluky record. The losses are a part of the big picture and not the whole picture as your pathetic attempt at disproving my point asserts.

The facts are the facts and you can’t cherry-pick crap from one year or another and pretend you have it right. And Reid is a competent head coach – nothing more. He will not win the Super Bowl until he recognizes his defects and hires people who can do things like adjust an offense during the course of a game. Your defenses are completely pointless. Your only plea here is “no contest.”

I don’t love Reid and have called for his ouster. You are saying none of his 140 wins are against good teams. It is ridiculous. The downfall in recent years is this over riding feeling of having to change to win the SB.. He will get back to his core values and return to the top of the coaching world

10-27 with the browns against teams with 9 plus wins. Reid can hang with any coach. Big difference in belicheks genius… One lucky or great draft pick … Brady. He is a fantastic coach who struck gold with a generational player. Reid drafted a very good but not great 5. The qb makes the difference in this league

You keep cherry-picking stats like the 5 years with Browns, but it fails. The game is different than it was in the early 1990s. The salary cap didn’t come into the NFL until 1994, which made a huge difference in loosening up dynasties and exposed people like Al Davis as frauds who can only win when they get to buy up talent.

So just stop this nonsense. If Reid could hang with any coach, he’d have gotten a ring as HC in 14 years. Truth is, he can’t. He’s a competent coach – that’s it. His record is clear and consistent.

Cower took longer to win, but at least he changed things up and learned as he went along. Reid still makes the same mistakes every year on game day and still loves his little fast guys with “motors.” His stubbornness is and has been his undoing.

Yes, having a Brady helps. But that doesn’t mean everything. In fact, having the best QB meant almost nothing up until the last 2 years or so. Greatest QB of all time (Marino) has no rings. Eli Manning has how many? Brad Johnson has how many? Mark Ripyen has how many? Doug Williams has how many? Face it, having the best QB doesn’t do it.

I seem to remember Cassel filling in at QB for a season and the Patriots still had a strong record without Brady. So drop the insinuation that having Brady made Bellicek less of a mastermind.

You need a sound set of players, a competent QB (not a super star or legend), and skilled coaches to win the Super Bowl. Unless Reid makes major changes in how he operates (maybe he will), he never will. If he goes somewhere else with his little motor guy approach and his offense that takes 15 minutes to call a stinking play, he will continue to fail to win the Super Bowl. His best hope is to land somewhere with a lot of talent and get lightning in a bottle in his first season.

The year without Brady they went 11-5 but didn’t make the playoffs 4 of those losses against your made up stat of 9 win teams. You are pissed at the last three years or so… As I am and it cost him his job. The fact remains he is a tip coach, you mention cower and him changing, unfortunately whe AR changed and he panicked about not winning the SB it cost him… He went against his basic principles. Youth, build from the draft, hire young teacher/coaches.

You cherry-picked the stat that you wanted to argue about (losses against winners) and ignore the context and big picture.

Now you whine about me “making up” a stat of wins against winning teams. A team with a winning record is a team with a winning record, screwball. Not sure why you object to something so simple and clear.

If I were a cherry-picking dishonest debater, I’d find ways to say that one 9-7 team was crappy but a 7-9 team was really a superior team. Over one or two seasons you could pull that stunt and maybe have some grounds to do so. But over 14 years, you have no grounds to argue. A team with a winning record is a winning team.

The guy who wrote the article “made up” a stat of wins against playoff teams. Why not bellyache about that?

You want to debate about Belichick’s record in the pre-salary cap league at the Browns, do it by yourself. It’s just not an apples-to-apples comparison. Why don’t you bring up Chuck Knox or John Madden and prattle on – they’re just as irrelevant to compare against the last 14 years of coaching in this league.

And I’m not just pissed about the last 3 years. I’m pissed that the man is so arrogant that he won’t look in the mirror and admit that he has problems. He learned a few lessons, but the slow and agonizing way (you need some legitimate play-makers on offense, you should start some rookies instead of sitting them for a year on some warped default policy, etc.). And he has never addressed the fact that he is a horrible game day coach if his game plan doesn’t put the team up by 3 TDs by the middle of the 2nd quarter.

Andy Reid has had some good years. He’s been more successful relative to his contemporaries than the last few coaches we’ve had here. He’s been better than other coaches who have come and gone recently in the NFL. Which is all very nice. But it doesn’t mean he’s an elite coach or logically suggest that he can become one.

Eagles to Interview Falcon’s D/C Miie Nolan on Friday as reported
by NFL Network
It was also reported that Lirie has a short list of Candidates that he been working on for the last 4-6 Weeks and that he confident of hiring the next Coach from this current list of Candidates

Dude, WTF is it with you, acting like you’re breaking news to everyone, all of the time?!? We all have radios, TV’s, computers, & can read the newspapers! Does it make you feel special, or something?!? Get a F^#@ing life, LIL Bron. Bron! BTW, how is your fraud love affair going with Stinkadala & ET?!? Both suck, & are frauds, like you, & you got the balls to criticize Paulman, all of the time. You ain’t been on here in weeks, & only comment when ET has one of his 1 out of 7 good games! Go away!

Happy New Year DCar
I think JH likes to follow me and other regular posters around and repeat our posts as if it matters to anyone who post what and when… Then he’ll claim that he called this and that basically repeating what many of us regulars have already stated
And he calls me fraud man??? He’s the biggest joke on here, hands down.
On a side note, are you rowdy for the luncheon wil GMCliff, myself and you
Today at 2pm with Lurie and Rosenan at NovaCare Ctr??
We got a lot of work ahead to do.. Ha

Follow you around? Repeat what other posters say? Huh? Your that desperate that you make up lies like that? If you don’t wanna be called out about it don’t post the bull crap. You named 50 guys who can potentially be the next eagles head coach then when 1 of the names surface you stick out ur old disgusting bird chest. Your the joke. Your the fraudman fraudfan and everyone knows it. Don’t try to mix me in with that bs. If you wanna announce when you right all the time announce when your wrong too. Like the whole Donahue thing. Just man up.

You are the fraud Lil Bron Bron! Paul is a faithful poster on here for years. When he isn’t being sarcastic, & braking balls, his posts are mostly all well thought out, truthful, intelligent, & honest. It’s just that you & the other jack@$$, HAC aren’t intelligent enough, to see his sarcasm. Dude is a real fan, unlike you 2 delusional nitwits! Look in the mirror at the fraud!

Im no longer looking back on the Andy Reid era. It had its highs and lows but disappointment is what hovers over that tenure. So I’m not going down that road of misery. The eagles have much to look foward to..

I’m hearing that Chip Kelly is still at the top of the Eagles list but they will wait to speak further with him until after the title game. Howie Roseman has been meeting with Chip all throughout the year so they already have a good relationship. I used to say they need to go defensive minded coach but the more I thought about it this is offensive driven league. So they need someone thats innovative and a forward thinker, someone ahead of the pack. (Like the Shanahans). Or they could go the Bruce Arians route someone that knows both sides of the ball really well. Here is my top 3 potential next Eagles head coaches where I sit right now so it’s subject to change..

1. Chip Kelly (Name remains hasn’t fallen off something to that)
2. Bill Obrien (hearing the buyout number means nothing to Lurie would pay it)
3. Bruce Arians (made big ben who he is today and is helping luck and the rest of that colts team succeed)
Bonus pick: Jon Gruden (Darkhorse) Behind the scenes watching what happens but he’d love to coach here I’m hearing.

Is anybody nervous about Lurie saying Roseman was only evaluated by 2012 draft? I mean as owner you cannot blame the coach for the bottom half of the roster that couldn’t play special teams and couldn’t come in and take over from some of the so called starters, all the while being 27 million dollars over the salary cap. I guess Howie had nothing to do with that either.

Great Match-up today in the Outback Bowl
Michigans LT Taylor Lewan vs South Carolina DE L Clowney
Who may or may not leave school early for the Draft
If DE Clowney does join the Draft, he becomes a Top #5
Pick no doubt.. Should be a good game